TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD QUOTES

The Wisdom of Atticus

If youll concede the necessity of going to school, well go on reading every night just
as we always have.Chapter 3, spoken by Atticus
The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience - Chapter 11,
spoken by Atticus
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a
man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you
begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you
do. - Chapter 11, spoken by Atticus
"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not
to try to win," Atticus said. Chapter 9.
Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

-Chapter 7, narrator.

"The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color
of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box."
Chapter 23, spoken by Atticus.
Remember its a sin to kill a mockingbird. That was the only time I ever heard Atticus
say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. Your fathers right,
she said. Mockingbirds dont do one thing but make music for us to enjoy . . . but sing
their hearts out for us. Thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird.---Chapter 10.
Through the Eyes of a Child.
I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks. - Chapter 23, spoken by Scout
When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a
production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults,
and evasion simply muddles 'em. - Chapter 9, spoken by Atticus
So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human. Chapter 16, spoken by Atticus
Cry about what, Mr. Raymond?" Dill's maleness was beginning to assert itself. "Cry
about the simple hell people give other people without even thinking. Cry about the hell
white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too."
Chapter 20, spoken by Dill.

"Atticus-" said Jem bleakly. He turned in the doorway. "What, son?" "How could they
do it, how could they?" "I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they
did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it seems that only children weep.
Good night." Chapter 22.
Humanizing and De-humanizing
He might have hurt me a little, Atticus conceded, but son, youll understand folks a
little better when youre older. A mobs always made up of people, no matter what. Mr.
Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man. Chapter 16, spoken
by Atticus.
"What was the evidence of her offense? Tom Robinson, a human being. She must put
Tom Robinson away from her. Tom Robinson was her daily reminder of what she did.
What did she do? She tempted a Negro. Chapter 20, spoken by Atticus.
"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better
with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things
from his point of view [] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Chapter
3, spoken by Atticus.
[Mr. Ewell says] "I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" Chapter 17.
"Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell's shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of
credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of
comeback, his kind always does. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved
Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that's something I'll gladly take. He had to take it out on
somebody and I'd rather it be me than that houseful of children out there. You
understand?" Chapter 23, spoken by Atticus.
Atticus was right. One time he said you never know a man until you stand in his shoes
and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.Chapter 31,
narrator.
An they chased him n never could catch him cause he hadnt done any of those
things. ..Atticus, he was real nice. Most people are Scout, when you finally see them.---Chapter 31, spoken by Scout and Atticus.

Prejudice and Caste System

Now tell your father not to teach you any more. Its best to begin reading with a fresh
mind. You tell him Ill take over from here and try to undo the damage- Chapter 2,
spoken by Miss Caroline.
There was indeed a caste system in Maycomb, but to my mind it worked this way: the
older citizens, the present generation of people who had lived side by side for years and
years, were utterly predictable to one another: they took for granted attitudes, character
shadings, even gestures, as having been repeated in each generation and refined by time.
Thus the dicta No Crawford Minds His Own Business, Every Third Merriweather Is
Morbid, The Truth Is Not in the Delafields, All the Bufords Walk Like That, were simply
guides to daily living: never take a check from a Delafield without a discreet call to the
bank; Miss Maudie Atkinson's shoulder stoops because she was a Buford; if Mrs. Grace
Merriweather sips gin out of Lydia E. Pinkham bottles it's nothing unusual her mother
did the same. Chapter 13, narrator.
Somewhere, I had received the impression that Fine Folks were people who did the best
they could with the sense they had, but Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely
expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it
was.- Chapter 13, narrator.
Atticus's voice was even: "Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants
to. You may think otherwise, but I couldn't have got along without her all these years.
She's a faithful member of this family and you'll simply have to accept things the way
they are." Chapter 14.
Because he is trash, thats why you cant play with him. Ill not have you around him,
picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what. Youre enough of a problem to your
father as it is. Chapter 23, spoken by Aunt Alexandra about Walter Cunningham.
"Hush your mouth! Don't matter who they are, anybody sets foot in this house's yo'
comp'ny, and don't you let me catch you remarkin' on their ways like you was so high and
mighty! Yo' folks might be better'n the Cunninghams but it don't count for nothin' the
way you're disgracin' 'em if you can't act fit to eat at the table you can just set here and
eat in the kitchen!" Calpurnia sent me through the swinging door to the diningroom with
a stinging smack. Chapter 3.
Lula stopped, but she said, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here they
got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?" Calpurnia said, "It's
the same God, ain't it?" Jem said, "Let's go home, Cal, they don't want us here-"---Chapter 12.

What it Means to be a Man

Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets. Chapter 5,
spoken by Miss Maudie.

"Well, Mr. Finch didn't act that way to Mayella and old man Ewell when he crossexamined them. The way that man called him 'boy' all the time an' sneered at him, an'
looked around at the jury every time he answered-" Chapter 19, spoken by Dill.
I looked around. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite
wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet. Reverend Sykes voice was as distant as
Judge Taylors: Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your fathers passin.Chapter 21.

He turned out the light and went into Jems room. He would be there all night, and he
would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.--- Chapter 31, narrator.

foreshadowing The Gothic elements of the novel (the fire, the mad

dog) build tension that subtly foreshadows Tom Robinsons trial and
tragic death; Burris Ewells appearance in school foreshadows the
nastiness of Bob Ewell; the presents Jem and Scout find in the oak tree
foreshadow the eventual discovery of Boo Radleys good-heartedness;
Bob Ewells threats and suspicious behavior after the trial foreshadow his
attack on the children.

themes The coexistence of good and evil; guilt and innocence;

knowledge and ignorance; prejudice and tolerance; the importance of

moral education; social class; loss of innocence; de-humanizing humans;
courage and cowardice; what it means to be vir fideles; parents as
primary educators; role of Watchmen.